Roadmap Revisited

Revisiting What Works: Women, Economic Empowerment and Smart Design updates the original Roadmap's ratings by reviewing the evidence generated since 2013. Building upon Measuring Women's Economic Empowerment, it identifies possible mechanisms to explain why interventions lead to economic empowerment outcomes, specifying causal chains of direct, intermediate and final outcomes for each of the interventions reviewed.The report places a special emphasis on 'smart design:' how development actors seeking to promote women's economic empowerment can make their interventions more effective by incorporating design features that help women overcome gender specific constraints and seeking to reduce gender biases in service provision.

Revisiting What Works reviews 11 of the 21 interventions identified in the original Roadmap and adds one new intervention. Findings from the report are based on a systematic review of the recent evaluation literature, as well as three think pieces commissioned on relevant topics: interventions that work to empower young women, the role of behavioral approaches and 'nudges,' and the role of networks and mentors. The review yielded 96 new studies, bringing the total number of studies in the Roadmap database to 232.

The report is organized by intervention type and each section provides (1) a systematic review of the new evidence generated since 2013; (2) an updated rating for the intervention, and (3) a causal chain tracing direct, intermediate and final outcomes pertaining to each intervention. The report concludes with lessons related to the revised ratings, underlying mechanisms, and the need for 'smart design.'